Parents who received transfer preparation had lower anxiety about their children's transfer from the paediatric intensive
care unit to a general paediatric ward

QUESTION: What is the effectiveness of transfer preparation to reduce the anxiety level of parents of children facing
imminent transfer from a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) to a general paediatric ward?

Design

Randomised {allocation concealed}*, unblinded, controlled trial.

Setting

A tertiary medical centre in southeastern USA.

Participants

50 parents (mean age 31 y, age range 15–52 y, 62% women, 80% white, 78% married) of children (mean age 3 y, age range 1 wk
to 12 y) who were in a PICU (mean duration of PICU stay 5 d). Inclusion criteria were first experience of a child in the PICU,
child in hospital because of an acute illness (eg, trauma, surgical procedure, or diagnosis of disease), parent attendance
in the PICU for ≥3 hours/day, and child to be transferred out of the PICU to a general …